How Much Does Land Cost?

The price of agricultural land at any one time is dependent upon the following factors:
- its location in the country and in relation to main population centres and communication links
- the extent of the land
- the fixtures and fittings -,buildings etc. - the fertility or productivity of the land
- whether the land has vacant possession or is tenanted

The last of those is very important in determining land prices but will be ignored here since it is assumed that rural resettlers will not be interested in buying tenanted land. Location is important since land will tend to fetch a higher price in these areas, such as the south-east, which have good communication links with the main conurbations. The smaller a piece of land, the more expensive it is likely to be on a per hectare basis. For this reason, farms are often split up into smaller parcels for sale at auction.

Fertility or productivity is important but not vital. Obviously, land which is capable, because of its inherent characteristics, of producing higher yields will tend to fetch a higher price. In general, land which is classified as Grade 1 by the MAFF will fetch a higher price than Grade 2, and so forth, but it doesn't always work out this way and it is not unusual to find a piece of Grade 3 land selling for a higher price than Grade 1.

Information for land prices is summarised every year in the MAFF publication 'Agricultural Land Prices in England and Wales', available from the Publications Department at Pinner (see above). This contains a fairly exhaustive analysis by region, size of farm, type of farm etc. It suffers from the problem that it is generally issued up to a year after the end of the period to which it refers. However, the Ministry does issue quarterly reports on land prices which are very useful, if a little less detailed than the annual reports.

The Farmers Weekly, Estates Gazette and Institutes of Agricultural Economics at Oxford University, issue a joint publication twice a year entitled 'The Farmland Market'. The annual subscription is £12.50 and it is available from: The Subscriptions Manager, IPC Business Press (S & D) Ltd., Oak field House, Perrymont Road, Haywards Heath, Sussex RH16 3D.

For up-to-the-minute information - though for a very small sample - the Farmers Weekly has a summary of the previous week's sales in its 'Business Section' most weeks. The magazine costs 25p and is published every Friday.